Cover Story - Top 12 Lex Luthor Covers

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Lex Luthor.  It’s a name that wrings loudly through the halls of supervillain infamy alongside such titans as Dr. Doom, the Joker, Loki, and Thanos.  Created in 1940, Lex Luthor is one of the oldest and most well known super villains of all time.  He’s appeared in almost every Superman-centric piece of media we’ve had, played by countless actors and enjoyed numerous solo comic appearances as a protagonist in his own right.  

His obsessive dedication to destroying the man of steel has shaped up to be one of pop culture’s greatest David vs. Goliath stories running across decades and multiple iterations of the character: he’s been a rogue scientist, a business guru, President, and a superhero in his own right.  This Sunday will mark Luthor’s first live-action appearance on the CW show Supergirl, played by Jon Cryer, and while that’s not quite as momentous as it might’ve been given we live in the Superhero Age I’ve still decided to mark the occasion with a deep dive into the top 12 Lex Luthor comic covers.

 

New Thor: Ragnarok Set Photos May Reveal Where Asgard's Royalty Ends Up

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Edited by Robert Beach

As we continue our slow rumble towards Thor: Ragnarok, the film has begun to take shape as one of the most eclectic and ambitious Marvel projects to date. That’s unquestionably a good thing given one of Marvel’s biggest problems is that they’re so producer driven and tightly controlled their films can end up a little formulaic and distant; it's a problem that befell Thor: Dark World. Thankfully, Ragnarok sounds like a bizarre mix of science fantasy, high-flying adventure, and sci-fi hooliganism that has the same broad scope of Dark World without the compromised story structure. 

So far, we know the film will revolve around the mythical Norse apocalypse and feature Cate Blanchett as the villainous Hela, Goddess of Death. We also know that the Machiavellian schemer and Elder of the Universe, the Grandmaster, will be at hand. Played by Jeff Goldblum, Grandmaster, assumedly, is behind turning the Hulk into a sword-and-planet style gladiator. Now, thanks to a new slew of set photos, we see the Thunder God will also be stopping over in Midgard in this new adaptation and is bringing some old friends and possible cameos with him.

Cover Story - Top 10 Winter Soldier Covers

Edited by Robert Beach

In approximately one week’s time, Captain America: Civil War will hit theaters (in the United States). It’s a big deal. The completion of Marvel’s 2^nd film trilogy and first phase 3 entry, two facts that are bolstered by the way Captain America has emerged as the ambassador of the superhero genre to the masses in the 2010s.  

For better or for worse, Captain America is THE superhero of the decade, and this latest film looks to be his greatest journey yet, pitting him against a world desperate to bring his closest friend to task for crimes he may not have committed. I’ll be doing a lot of posts related to the upcoming premiere. For now, we celebrate the “best friend” of that synopsis with the top 10 Winter Soldier comic covers. 

Who Is Cate Blanchett in Thor: Ragnarok?

At time of writing Marvel studios is entering into their much vaunted phase 3 with…less than a full deck of cards, to put it delicately.  The Marvel brand is still a pretty unassailable seal of financial success but its standard as a seal of quality and, most of all, audience interest has become decidedly tarnished in the 3 years since Avengers cemented them as the entertainment kings of the 2010s.  There have been some major cultural hits like Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant Man, and Winter Soldier has done a lot to cement Captain America as THE superhero of this moment in time, much like Spider-Man in 2001, Batman in 1989, or Superman in 1978.  Additionally they’ve finally managed to make some in roads on the issues of diversity that’ve been dogging their brand for awhile thanks to the twin hits of Agent Carter and Jessica Jones. 

Unfortunately, a pretty heft bundle of disposable, forgotten, or underwhelming and underperforming entries have also blighted the Marvel stable.  Stuff like Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., have all done a serious number on the Marvel brand and losing out key box office battles to rival franchises like Jurassic World and Hunger Games has definitely not helped.  The crowning example of the tarnished Marvel star would have to be Thor: The Dark World, the lackluster and underperforming sequel to one of Marvel’s greatest successes of phase 1. 

Marvel Phase 2 Review

The release of any Marvel film brings with it the question of “where does it rank among all the other Marvel movies.”  However, in the case of Ant-Man that question brings with it an added amount of weight and focus, as Ant-Man is also the conclusion to Marvel’s entire Phase 2 enterprise.  This was meant as the big, showy example of everything Marvel could with both Disney’s money and the assured popularity of a mass fan base in the wake of Phase 1’s success at finding an audience for their B & C-list heroes.  Oh there have been installments in phase 2 meant to broaden Marvel’s character rosters but more often than not that job fell to the sidebars of individual films.  New characters like Iron Patriot, The Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, and the Falcon weren’t the focus of this experimental phase.  No, the big push of phase 2 has been capitalizing on previous success to move things around for the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe story and there’s no getting around the truth that for the most part it just didn’t work.